Kathy Cook, one of the top amateur coaches in the country, has been named the assistant men’s and women’s swimming coach at Albright announced head coach Michael Hay.
“Coach Cook’s presence adds a second coach to the staff who has coached YMCA National Champions and Olympic Trial Qualifiers, and I believe that her reputation as a mentor and teacher cements Albright College as having one of the best coaching staffs in all of NCAA Division III swimming,” said Hay. “I have known Kathy for many years, and have watched her swimmers set National Age Group Records, qualify for Olympic Trials, and go on to tremendous college careers.”
Cook comes to Albright with a storied coaching background. Most recently she served as the head coach of the Tops Swimming team after serving as the Director of Competitive Swimming and the head coach at the Pottstown YMCA for 17 years.
During her tenure at the Pottstown YMCA, Cook was named the YMCA National Coach of the Year in 2014 after leading Pottstown to the Pennsylvania state YMCA Championship. Additionally, she coached individuals to 15 YMCA National Championships and two of her swimmers set YMCA national records.
She coached Pottstown teams that placed in the top 20 at the YMCA National Championships in 2004, 2005 and 2010. She also led her teams to a top five finish in the district and state YMCA meets every year since 1997.
Cook was the age group coach for former Penn State standout Pat Schirk who went on to become the first Nittany Lion to ever capture an NCAA individual championship. Schirk later went on to earn a spot on the United States National Team.
“Opportunities to hire coaches who have made such incredible impacts on their community and with such expansive resumes don’t come around every day and we are extremely lucky to have been in a position to add Kathy to our staff. I look forward with great anticipation to the impact that she can make on our program in the future,” said Hay.
Cook also served as the swim coach at the Pocono Family YMCA and the North End Swim Club.
An accomplished swimmer herself, Cook captured Pennsylvania YMCA state championship titles in 1963, 1965 and 1967.
She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in health and physical education from East Stroudsburg in 1975.
She was a captain of the East Stroudsburg women’s swim team and also played on the lacrosse team.
